


Ghosts in the Rafters

by Takada_Saiko



Series: Such Great Heights One Shots [1]
Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Dream World, F/M, one shot addition to Such Great Heights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2019-04-04 21:34:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14029221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Takada_Saiko/pseuds/Takada_Saiko
Summary: One shot set in the dream world of my multi-chapter Such Great Heights.A double date, plenty of alcohol, and a potentially haunted church with bells that only two people can hear ringing.





	Ghosts in the Rafters

She couldn't say that she'd been entirely on board with the idea. Not the double-date or the engagement, if she were honest. Wynonna knew that Willa didn't need her permission to get married, but she and Robert had been dating less time than Wynonna and Doc had and the man was…. weird.

Not that everyone wasn't weird in Purgatory, but Robert Svane was quirky in the strangest ways. Where most people in the town did everything they could to avoid the supernatural, his curiosity knew no bounds. Willa had been open with him about the family curse relatively early on, and Wynonna had hoped it would send him running for the hills, but instead he had buckled down and done more research than either of the older Earp sisters ever had, and there they were, months later, and Willa had a big old rock on her finger. It was big. And old. A teacher couldn't afford that, right? Maybe he ran some sort of drug ring. Or an arms ring. Sure, that was it. Something dangerous. Right.

"You're thinkin' awful hard about something, darlin'."

Wynonna looked over at John Henry and blew a strand of hair out of her face as she hunched forward on the tailgate of his truck and took a long swig from her beer, her gaze fixed on the happy couple a few yards away and just out of earshot. "Just considering all the sketchy things that Robert may be into."

Her boyfriend huffed a laugh and joined her on the open tailgate. "Yeah?" he asked and reached back for the cooler in the back to grab a beer of his own. "You met Robert Svane?"

"He's too perfect. No one's that squeaky clean."

She glanced over in time to see a grin under that mustache of his. "Oh, I wouldn't call him that."

"Yeah? Well, the man's marrying my sister. Give me the dirt."

Doc's grin broadened as he flipped the tab off the beer and leaned back. "Oh, let's see. I said he wasn't squeaky clean, but dirt's a whole nother thing."

Wynonna rolled her eyes dramatically, frowning at the way Willa laughed as Robert leaned in to whisper something close. They were obnoxious, all giggles and sweet words. It drove her insane. "Mama _loves_ him."

"Oh I know she does," Doc chuckled. "Better 'n me, I reckon."

"Tons. I'm the black sheep. You had no hope."

"I knew that goin' into this," he assured her, still leaned back and she saw him turn his gaze skyward to the vast openness above them. "He had the whole mohawk goin' early in undergrad."

"That's not dirt."

"To him it is."

"Wow, that's lame. How did you guys become friends again?"

She watched dark blue eyes close as he thought back. "Made the mistake of askin' him for help to keep from failin' a test back in highschool and found out we got along," he mused, his voice light. "Man's loyal. Jumped into more 'n one fight for me."

"Robert in a fight? That's hard to picture."

"He can talk himself out of a lot, but he's not half bad in a scuffle when it comes down to it." Doc sat up, eyeing her for a moment. "He's a good guy, Wynonna. You know I'd warn you if he weren't. He may be my best friend, but that's your sister."

She held his gaze for a moment before shrugging, looking back towards the newly engaged couple. "I know. He just gets under my skin."

"Tell you a secret?" She shot him a look out of the corner of her eye and he leaned forward, elbows on his bent knees. "You get under his too. Not sure which of you started it, but the give an' take's equal enough."

"So the bastard tries?"

"Don't let the innocent façade fool ya too much."

She snorted and couldn't help the smile that lingered as he sat up, bumping his shoulder into hers and then leaning in to kiss her cheek. "C'mon. We didn't come all this way for nothin'."

"Are you serious? You really think this old thing is haunted?" Wynonna sighed.

"Daddy would have a shitfit if he knew we were out here, wouldn't he?" Willa laughed and stretched her arms out, spinning a little so that her sundress spun out around her, her tone lighter than Wynonna had heard in a while. She was happy, and it wasn't just at the idea of doing something that would send their father into a fit. Robert stood ready to catch her if she tipped off kilter, a beer in his own hand and yet much steadier than the formerly-assumed Earp Heir.

"I do like making Dad squirm a little," Wynonna acknowledged as she hopped off the tailgate, her boots sinking into the mud, still soft after the latest rain. She really wasn't drunk enough for this yet, but that could be corrected pretty easily. She downed the rest of her beer quicker than she might have otherwise, and she knew a buzz would be quick to follow.

Willa was still giggling a little, half leaning, half falling back into he fiancé who wrapped protective arms around her and rested his bearded chin against her shoulder. Wynonna tossed the empty bottle back into the bed of the truck. "You scared of ghosts, Rob?"

Robert made a face at the attempted nickname that sounded just as off to her as it seemed to sound to him. "Not particularly. Never seen one, so I'll let you know for sure if we do."

Willa reached out for his hand, pulling him forward and towards the church's old, wooden doors. The only light they had out in the middle of nowhere was that coming from the full moon and stars, but Doc handed her a flashlight, his eyebrows dancing up towards the hat he was wearing as he switched his own on under his chin, the light shining up and casting strange shadows. Wynonna rolled her eyes at his playfulness and started after her sister and her fiancé.

They had already gone through the door by the time Wynonna reached it and she found the empty old church less spooky than she imagined. Willa was weaving in and out through the pews, running her fingers along the dusty wood, but Wynonna's gaze settled on Robert.

He stood back, a small smile playing on his thin lips as he watched Willa. There was a strange sense of peace around him, those icy eyes of his focused in absolutely, almost like Willa was the only other person on the planet with him. She seemed to know he was watching and her smile didn't fade. Wynonna wasn't sure she'd ever seen her older sister so happy before.

Then she heard it. It was soft at first, like something out in the distance, but still loud enough to catch her attention. Wynonna tilted her head to try to catch it. Bells. They sounded like bells. Church bells, and they were getting louder and louder.

She looked over to Doc to see if he could hear it too, but he was leaning against a pew with a lazy smile like he didn't have a care in the world. Willa was spinning, her dress floating out, but her tipsy giggle didn't quite drown the sound out.

Then Wynonna looked back to Robert his smile had faded and his dark brows drew together, focused and more intense than Wynonna had ever seen him before.

Willa stopped, not drunk enough to miss the change. "Babe, what's wrong?"

"You hear that?" he asked hesitantly.

"Hear what?"

Wynonna watched him tilt his head, but if he was listening or trying to decide if he should say something, she wasn't sure. She could see that admittedly clever mind working behind icy blue eyes in the shadows of the church before his gaze swept upwards towards the rafters.

"Hearin' ghosts?" Doc chuckled, but his best friend didn't share in the amusement. Instead he pressed his thin lips together, running his hand through his shortly cropped dark hair, and looked off towards the little alcove to the left of the door, his gaze sweeping upward along the old ladder that was connected to the wall.

"That should lead to the belltower, I'd think," he murmured as he started for it without any further explanation.

"With half the rungs rotted through, sure," Willa said as she took a seat on a pew. "Robert, you're not-"

But he was already on his way up, focused on whatever he'd seen. Willa started to stand, a little unsteady, and Wynonna waved her off. "I'll get him." She was following before anyone could protest.

Robert was already up the rickety ladder and climbing onto the small platform that must have been used for maintaining the old bell that still hung in the church. From the looks of it, he and Wynonna were the first ones up there in a couple of decades at least. "This gives way on us and we're both gonna get it," she warned as she poked her head up through the opening at the top of the ladder, startling him from where he was carefully inching towards the bell.

"Did you hear it?" he asked, squinting through his glasses at the old, dusty bell.

"The bells that don't like they've moved in years? Hard to miss."

"Willa and Hank did," Robert said thoughtfully, reaching a finger out to run it along the bell.

The boards beneath his shoes gave a dangerous creak and he eased back. Wynonna looked warily at the platform, not quite sure she was ready to join him on it, and turned her gaze on Robert. The tall man still studying the bell like it was going to give him a clue.

Wynonna let her gaze drift. There was no sign that anyone had been up there. Not human, Revenant, or ghost, and the longer they stood there the dumber she felt. It was just a bell fit into the tower that didn't even have a rope attached to it anymore. There was the platform and an open windows up top, but nothing else. They were just worked up. There wasn't anything supernatural about the old church.

Robert wasn't coming to that conclusion though. "Maybe there are ghosts here….I wonder why we were the only ones to hear it."

There it was again, that curious nature that didn't set right with Wynonna.. At least it gave her a moment alone with him out of earshot of her sister. "So," she began, finally scooting so that she was sitting on the platform that Robert was carefully making his way around, "you and Willa pick a date yet?"

"That really what you want to ask me?" Robert's voice came from the other side of the bell and Wynonna frowned.

"Should there be something else?"

She heard him chuckle, inching his way carefully around the bell, finally finding a place he deemed sturdy enough to squat down on his heels, examining the area from the new angle. "You tell me. Can't miss the way you've been side-eying me all evening."

The bastard really was observant, even several beers in.

Robert loosed a breath, drawing a Wynonna's attention to see him rest his forearms on his bent knees, not bothering to rise from where he was crouched. He was still staring at the bell that hadn't bothered to make a sound since they had been up there, much less move, but he spoke in a soft and serious tone. "I know you Earps are…. protective, and I know Willa 'n I have-"

"Jumped into this engagement hella fast?" Wynonna offered.

"I love her," he said plainly, standing and dusting his hands off against his dark jeans. "More than anything in this world. I ain't gonna let anything or anyone hurt her, least of all me. I'd do anything for her."

The openness wasn't something she had seen from him before, but there was a sincerity in his low voice that rang through. Wynonna pushed a breath out through her nose. "Anything, huh? You going to be the one to help her hide the bodies then?"

Robert quirked an eyebrow, a very small smirk playing. "I kinda assumed if it came down to it that a request like that would come from Hank first…."

Wynonna cracked a smile at that.

"But guess he's got you for it now."

The smile immediately faded. "Listen-"

"Goes both ways, Wynonna girl," her soon-to-be brother in law drawled, the usual amusement in his eyes completely gone, a seriousness replacing it. "You know Hank doesn't have anyone left after his mom passed a couple years ago, and I don't have any family left either. Maybe not by blood, but he's my brother."

She let the words sink in deep before nodding her understanding. He knew where she was coming from, he knew the depth of that loyalty, and he still stood by what he'd said. He loved her sister and he'd do anything for her. "Okay."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." She smirked, kicking out carefully from her perch and nudging his ankle with the toe of her boot. "Just keep doing whatever you're doing that's making her happy."

He echoed her smile. "Plannin' on it."

"Hey you two! You find anything?" Willa called from below and Wynonna looked down through the hole in the platform to see her standing at the base of the ladder and looking straight up, Doc moving to join her there.

The brunette shrugged. "If there were any ghosts, we didn't find them."

"Damn," her sister grumbled.

Wynonna flashed a wide grin, but looked up immediately as the bell started to sway a little. "What the-?"

Robert chuckled, moving around towards the front window. "That's it. It was catching the draft."

"That's a hell of a draft."

"Mm. Stand up here. You can feel it."

Wynonna eased herself up, careful to avoid the wood that was more rotted through, and moved to stand with him. The breeze was strong between the two windows, and the bell was swinging hard enough for the clapper to strike the inside of the bell, resounding off of it a little louder each time as it gained momentum. She stood there watching it, a little disappointed with the simple explanation.

"Still doesn't explain why we were the only ones to hear it," Robert said, suddenly right in her ear and she jumped, turning to swing at him and seeing that shit-eating-grin that he was wearing as he turned to make his way back towards the ladder, quick and quiet on the wood.

She shook her head, rolling her eyes as he started down and she could hear both of the people they loved below, grumbling about their boredom now that the mystery was solved. Doc was right. The innocent façade was just that, but that didn't make him any less of a good man, and Wynonna had seen Willa's dating history as it progressed. She was as much a magnet for every bad boy in Purgatory as Wynonna herself, but this time, maybe, she'd landed herself one that would support her as much as she supported him. As long as he didn't hurt her, Wynonna thought she could get behind that.

"Nonna, if you don't hurry your ass up I'm drinking your whiskey you have in Doc's truck!" Willa yelled from below and Wynonna's eyes widened.

"You wouldn't dare!"

"You wanna risk it?" the older Earp laughed and Wynonna shimmied down the ladder faster than she'd gone up, hitting the bottom and taking off without waiting for the door.

* * *

 

Notes: Like I mentioned in the epilogue, I have several one shots in the planning stages that will take place in the dream world. There were just too many little pieces of back story that didn't have a good place to put them, so this seemed like the best option.

 If anyone has any requests for scenes you'd like to see, let me know :)


End file.
